


Ramona, my love

by broqentoys (HugsNotDrugs)



Category: Flight Rising
Genre: Angst, Death, Existential Angst, Gen, Good Friends, Immortality, Old Age, Self-Harm, Suicidal Thoughts, True Love, dragon in a stone is cold, sad things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-09
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2019-06-24 04:46:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15622860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HugsNotDrugs/pseuds/broqentoys
Summary: the story of a man who starts alone and ends alonealt: the origin story of Oak





	Ramona, my love

**Author's Note:**

> cha~ i love my son

"Why do I exist?"

The stone wall, a dragon-like face forming from it, leaves me in agonizing silence.

"Please, please! Tell me!" I slammed my hands on the unyielding wall in frustration. My claw chipped off a shard of rock from the inanimate face. It clattered onto the thread-bare dirt as my eyes followed. I blinked once and the ground suddenly shook violently with a roaring rumble and my claws dug reflexively into the dirt for purchase. I lowered to the ground panickedly, but the rumble soon ceased. I straightened back up cautiously, sweeping my surroundings for a sign of change, but the woods around me were as serene as ever, and birdsong even began to emerge once more. I took one cautious glance towards the unmoving stone face and ran in the opposite direction.

About two hundred paces or so from the wall, my entire body froze, seized by the neck by an invisible force. What? Who? I strained and twisted in place, but I could not move any further from what must have been the origin of the force holding me back: the damned stone wall.

I scoped my territory like this, following the outskirts of the force. I had about a half-circle, admittedly a big area filled with interesting woods and even a small creak, but oh my Gods it was confining. How would I yearn for the taste of freedom without having ever had it? Yet I wanted.

It was only a matter of time before someone found me in my wretched state. I was watering some of my botany on the outskirts of my confinement one day when she came.

"Hi, my name is Ramona. Who are you?" A curious dragon, something different about them compared to me though we looked similar to a degree, voice lilting a little bit higher, lithe limbs and smile all alluring and beautiful. They were unbound by the cursed stone and I noted them stepping in and out of my boundaries. They had more freedom than I ever did, and I watched enviously for a few moments before they waved a claw in front of my face, no doubt wanting a response.

"I... I don't know. No one ever gave me a name."

"What? You're strange." They wrinkled their nose, but smiled at me all the same and I felt lighter at the conversation. Was talking to another of my own so relieving? No, not one of my own. I gulped at the thought of having to tell them about my curse.

"Hey wait! What if I give you a name? Can I name you? Pretty pretty please?" They nearly bounced on the spot, their eyes bright with excitement.

"Sure." I shrugged noncommittally, slightly curious about what they would think of.

They tapped a talon to their face in thought. "Hmmm... how about Oak? Like that super nice oak tree over there." They pointed to my favorite one, a ways off that was the tallest tree in my woods, the one that I would climb up onto to see beyond my borders.

"Oak..." I tasted the name a bit, but sparks flew inside me because I now knew that my trees were oak trees. 

"I like it, thank you." I nodded and smiled back at them, not used to making expressions for another dragon.

"No problem, Oak!" They smiled very often, and my gut decided for me that I would like them very much.

Ramona taught me many things, brought in scraps of the world from 'the outside' and always, always kept me company. Or at least they did for quite a few sun cycles. See, they weren't much to me because I saw them all the time, but a slight inkling in the back of my head suggested that the sun cycles meant much more to Ramona, as every time they came to see me, they would seem abnormally affected by the consistent pattern of light and darkness. Still, they came, and I would subtly take them just a little further within my realm so that they would not notice the force holding me back. I wished upon the twinkling lights in the sky that Ramona's smile could be mine to keep forever.

It happened slowly, but my worst fear was realized as Ramona's visits became less and less frequent until one day, they stopped completely. I fretted, pulled hairs, wished harder to the stars and began talking to the plants: if only, if only Ramona would come back. I would not blow in their ear for fun. I would not tickle them with my beard. I would not keep secrets.

I sat by the creek watching the sun go down, swishing my tail listlessly and missing Ramona. A pressure on the leaves behind me, louder than my creatures and critters, made me jump up with excitement and whip around to greet Ramona. Finally, finally. But there was something wrong with them.

"You... you look different." They laughed at that, their twinkling, kind voice weaker than it used to be. Their mane was streaked with a new color that made it look brittle and fragile. An unnameable panic rose within me. I knew dead plants, had them, and perhaps it was there that my mind drew the connection.

"Why do you think I've been taking longer and longer to come see you?" They looked apologetic at that, but I gave a cry of alarm as their joints buckled, too frail to hold them up and they fell with a frightening _whump_ onto the dirt.

"Ramona, Ramona, what's happening to you?" My eyes beaded out tears as I pushed at them with my snout, trying to help them back up.

"I'm dying, you silly goose."

"W-w-hat is a g-goose..." I choked out between sobs, wrapping their smaller body in mine as I clung on tightly to their hand.

"Bird... white one and it goes 'quack'... I'd say it's yummy but you're vegetarian, no?" They chuckled weakly, nestling their cheek in my neck with a small smile, eyes hazy. How, how can you still act like this? Like you are still the Ramona who was the light in my life, made me feel freedom, was my best friend and more.

"I still am." Like they had seen it in my eyes and caught me even as they fell. They were right as always. Ramona died in my arms, smile peaceful and it was a thin layer of salve over my aching heart, that I knew what had become of them and they left this world happily.

I whined, snuffled, paced around the body for many, many sun cycles until even I could not ignore the decaying, odorous and sickly. I shielded it from the sun and heat with big, flat leaves. Still, bits of it crumbled away, I, helpless to stop it. Ramona was gone. I finally buried them one day, crying as mounds of earth covered up their eyes, now sunken and foggy, but oh how they glittered in life.

I noticed my domain more, then. With nothing to occupy my mind like Ramona did, I watched how plants and animals grew. I watched how they died. Some, naturally, in the way that Ramona did and I could never. Some, the animals, by the teeth of another, and they bled red as their body twitched, then stilled. I observed.

As an experiment, I raked my arm across a sharp rock formation. A gash opened on my arm, and the pain was exciting, something that pulled my seemingly endless life towards not. A tingling began at the edge of the cut and it began to heal rapidly.

"No!" I screeched at it, batting at it for it to stop, pulling me further from release.

"I hate you." I sobbed quietly. I tried periodically to hurt myself to an irreversible point until it became clear that my healing powers were too great for me to ever join Ramona. I found myself once more in front of the stone wall. The face leered at me. I slammed my horns into it with a sickening crack. If it was me I was overjoyed, if it was the face then good riddance.

"I want to die! Let me die!" I screamed, tears dripping onto the unresponsive snout of the stone. Like the last time the wall was damaged, the ground began to quake, but this time on a much greater scale. The vibrations dislodged me from the wall and threw me back as an unearthly voice screamed from within the stone. 

"Oh shi-"

I put a hand up to shield myself from the flying rubble as streaks of light broke out from the cracks in the dragon's face and consumed me.

_Dear Ramona in heaven. I hope you are doing well. It is lonely here without you. I miss you. But it is okay, because heaven must be much nicer than here. Wait for me, please._


End file.
